ABRAHAM'S BOSOM
ABRAHAM'S BOSOM
PART 4
There is an old Negro spiritual, the chorus of which concludes its message with the lyrics, "Rock-a-ma-soul in the Bosom of Abraham," repeated several times for emphasis. This spiritual reflects the traditional idea that Abraham's bosom is a figurative expression meaning heaven as the blissful and eternal abode of the saved. Most evangelists in the churches today graphically describe how the rich man died and went to hell, whereas the beggar died and went to heaven. Now, where, I ask, in the Bible is there any warrant for saying that heaven is "Abraham's bosom"? If the popular preachers are right and heaven is Abraham's bosom, then may I be permitted to ask - What happened to righteous departed who died in the ages before Abraham? What about Abel, Seth, Enoch and Noah? Where did they go? Apparently heaven was not then open to receive visitors!
The expression "in Abraham's bosom" signifies being in the favor and in the place of honor of Abraham. The expression is borrowed from the custom of Christ's day of speaking of the honored guest who reclined nearest the host as reclining on his bosom. The word bosom is used 41 times in the Bible and always means the same thing - the area of the chest or breast of the human being. Anything one embraces is "in the bosom." When I take my wife and wrap my arms about her and hold her close, I take her into my bosom. Isaiah tells us that the Saviour will carry the lambs in His bosom, indicating a close, personal relationship. The people of the East reclined at meals. By this arrangement, the head of one person was brought almost into the bosom of the person who lay above him, and the guests were arranged so as to bring the most honored nearest to the host. At the "last supper" of Jesus Christ, John was leaning on Jesus' bosom (Jn. 13:23) - that is, he was reclining next to Jesus, in the most honored position, indicative of the close, personal relationship that existed between Jesus and John, for John is mentioned in the Bible as that disciple "whom Jesus loved." Christ is in the bosom of the Father; He possesses the closest intimacy with the Father. Even today when we wish to speak of those especially intimate with us, we call them "bosom friends." This expression has come down to us from those earlier days. Because of the association of the bosom with the arrangement of eating at a meal, we get the idea of a banquet. Lazarus, an ulcerated and crippled beggar, who had lain at the rich man's gate, contented with the scraps thrown out to him, was translated to a feast, and he had the most intimate place among all the guests, reclining on the hosts' (Abraham's) bosom. It means he was carried into a close, personal relationship WITH ABRAHAM! So the Jews had for centuries great honors and benefits bestowed upon them as the chosen of God for Abraham's sake, but now this place of honor and blessing would be given to those people represented by Lazarus.
God made great promises to Abraham. You can read them in the book of Genesis. He was to become "a great nation." He was to become "a multitude of nations." God said, "Kings shall come of you." Abraham's posterity were to emigrate and colonize and "spread abroad to the west, the east, the north, and the south." Included in these gracious promises to the founding father of God's chosen people was the promise that his "seed" would "bless all nations."
Take great care, my beloved, to notice the nature of the promises and blessings. The carnal mind which is enmity against God, the God who is spirit and life and speaks a spiritual language, is ever eager to grasp the divine and heavenly promises of God and apply them on the low plane of the natural and the physical. That we might better comprehend the deep spiritual implications of God's wonderful promises to Abraham, the inspired apostle wrote, "Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to CONFIRM THE PROMISES made unto the fathers" (Rom. 15:8). In words clear and penetrating Paul shows that one of the primary purposes of Christ's ministry, His death, and His resurrection was to "confirm the PROMISES made unto the fathers." The word "confirm" is from the Greek BEBAIOO meaning "to make strong, firm, or sure." Jesus came for the express purpose of MAKING SURE or GUARANTEEING the fulfillment of all the promises made to the fathers, that is, the INHERITANCE promised by God. The question follows - WHO were the fathers, and WHAT are the promises? "The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His Son Jesus" (Acts 3:13). "I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob" (Acts 7:32). You will notice from reading these passages that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are the fathers. When the rich man in the parable addressed Abraham, he called him Father Abraham, indicating that he counted himself his son, or as belonging to Abraham's seed.
But what are the promises? We must now prepare to follow into deeper waters. You will not be able to hear with natural ears nor understand with natural minds the words that flow from the anointed pen of the apostle Paul when he writes, "that the BLESSING OF ABRAHAM might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the PROMISE OF THE S-P-I-R-I-T through faith" (Gal. 3:14). You must beseech God to open the eyes of your understanding that you might comprehend spiritual realities, for I declare unto you that reading back through the promises of God to Abraham, aided only by the understanding of the natural mind, you will never find any place in the Old Testament where God promised Abraham THE SPIRIT! Apparently, no promise of the Spirit was ever given to father Abraham. Land, yes! Posterity, yes! Blessing, yes! Greatness, yes! But - the SPIRIT?
Let us examine briefly but one of the remarkable promises made to father Abraham. In Gen. 13:15 we read, "For all the land which you see, to you will I give it, and to your seed FOREVER." If you will read this promise with the illumination of the Spirit you will see that it is something beyond a piece of real estate that God promises to Abraham. You see, the promise of the land is given both to Abraham and his seed F-O-R-E-V-E-R. This is clearly one of the first direct promises made by God to man in which He promises man ETERNAL LIFE. For the only way that Abraham himself, or his seed, can possess the land forever is to first of all possess eternal life! This is not merely the promise of a land for Abraham's descendants, but the promise to Abraham personally, and to his descendants of ETERNAL INHERITANCE!
Did Abraham inherit this promise? Hear the words of Stephen, the first Christian martyr, in Acts 7:2-5: "Men and brethren and fathers, hearken: the God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran, and said unto him, Get out of your country, and from your kindred, and come into a land which I will show you ... and He gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on: yet He PROMISED that He would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child. "Note that God gave Abraham no inheritance (at that time) in the land - but promised that He would give it to him AFTERWARD. Can we not see by this that Abraham never received the promised inheritance during his lifetime. Yet the land was promised to him. And so we read, "By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should AFTER receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. These ALL DIED in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them AFAR OFF, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them..." (Heb. 11:8-9).
The promise of eternal inheritance, incorporating within itself the necessity for everlasting life, is the promise made to Abraham! The fact of eternal life is implicit in the promise of eternal inheritance. It is a matter of simple reason that leads to the conclusion that one can only inherit something forever if he is able to live forever. All who go by way of the grave leave their inheritance to their heirs. Jesus came to CONFIRM this promise! In pleading his case before king Agrippa the apostle Paul eloquently elaborated on this very truth, declaring, "And now I stand and am judged for the hope of THE PROMISE made of God unto our fathers: unto which our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come. For which hope's sake, king Agrippa, I am accused of the Jews. Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should RAISE THE DEAD? Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue ... saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come: that Christ should suffer, and that He should be the first that should RISE FROM THE DEAD, and should show light unto the people (of Israel), and to the Gentiles" (Acts 26:6-8, 22-23).
Consider now the remarkable statement of Jesus found in Jn. 10:7-10. 'Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. All that ever came before Me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door: by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture." The man Jesus stood one day in the center of the religious world and made the astonishing statement, "ALL that ever came before Me are thieves and robbers." Did He not take into consideration Abel, who "by faith brought God a better and more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, because of which it was testified of him that he was righteous - and God bore witness by accepting and acknowledging his gifts. And though he died, yet he is still speaking" (Heb. 11:4). Did He not take into consideration Noah, that preacher of righteousness, that man perfect in his generation, who "being forewarned of God concerning events of which as yet there was no visible sign, took heed and diligently and reverently constructed and prepared an ark for the deliverance of his own family. By this he passed judgment and sentence on the world's unbelief and became an heir and possessor of righteousness" (Heb. 11:7). Did He not take into consideration that great man of faith, Abraham, who "when he was called, obeyed and went forth to a place which he was destined to receive as an inheritance" (Heb. 11:8). Did He not take into consideration that mighty man, Moses, who "when he had grown to maturity and become great, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, because he preferred rather to share the oppression and bear the shame of the people of God than to have the fleeting enjoyment of sin. He considered the contempt and abuse and shame borne for Christ to be greater wealth than all the treasures of Egypt, for he looked forward and away to the reward. By faith he left Egypt behind him ... urged on by faith the people crossed the Red Sea as though on dry land" (Heb. 11:24-29). When Jesus uttered these extraordinary, audacious words, "ALL who ever came before Me are thieves and robbers," did He not know of all the patriarchs and prophets, and men of faith and exploits? Yes He did! Furthermore, when Jesus was on earth there was already here Hinduism, Buddhism, and all the Eastern religions, and the founders of them. All of those were before Him. Can we believe that Jesus was calling all these good men THIEVES and ROBBERS?
The Jews were greatly offended when Jesus said that HE was the door to life and ALL who came before Him were thieves and robbers, and the thief comes only to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. They understood not the words that He spoke unto them. Oh how good it would be if God's dear people would only seek to understand the vital message contained in the words which fell that day from the anointed lips of Jesus the Christ! To those who can receive it, our Lord was saying that ANY MAN OR ANY MESSAGE THAT BRINGS TO MANKIND ANY THING BUT LIFE IS A THIEF AND A ROBBER! All who came before Jesus were thieves and robbers because the revelation and message they bore LED TO DEATH. They gave mankind great teachings, inspiring philosophies, wonderful laws and valuable precepts, but not one of them possessed eternal, incorruptible life, and not one of them could minister that life to those to whom they were sent. Many centuries ago the apostle Paul penned an inspired assertion when writing to the saints at Corinth he said, "For HE must reign, until HE has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is DEATH" (I Cor. 15:25-26). Death is not a friend, as the preachers of Babylon are wont to tell us. The greatest enemy of mankind is still DEATH. And good men, holy men, great men like Abraham and Moses and David, men who heard the voice of God and by faith did exploits in their generation, DIED AND PASSED INTO CORRUPTION. The Holy Spirit witnesses with absolute certainty that "These ALL DIED in faith, not having received the promises" (Heb. 11:13). Jesus looked at all these men with their message and ministry and works and saw that not one possessed life or the ability to impart life into mankind. They all, in very fact, deprived mankind of the most precious gift of all - life! The law that came by Moses was a ministry of death, and the message of every other holy man fell short of life, incorruption and immortality. Jesus came bearing a truth, a reality, a power never before possessed by any man who came before Him. He came with LIFE, eternal life, incorruptible life, abundant life! Life enough for Himself and all mankind! Confucius is dead; Buddha is dead; Moses is dead. I have stood by the tomb of David on Mount Zion in Jerusalem, and by the tombs of other great men and I testify that they are both dead and buried and their sepulchres are with us to this day. But Jesus Christ is alive, and all who believe on Him are transformed by His Spirit. There is a coming forth from the tomb of a new kind of life and a new kind of experience which we have not known before. Unto quickened men today Jesus is speaking these magnificent words: "I am the resurrection and the life: he that believes in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever live and believes in Me shall NEVER DIE. Do you believe this?" (Jn. 11:25-26).
Jesus came to confirm the promise made to the fathers, the promise of eternal life, and thereby eternal inheritance, by Himself tasting death for every man, and becoming the FIRST TO RISE FROM THE DEAD in immortality and incorruption, never to die anymore! Jesus indeed came to confirm - MAKE POSSIBLE - the fulfillment of the promise. "And for this cause He is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death ... they which are called might receive the promise of ETERNAL INHERITANCE" (Heb. 9:15). It seems to me that to comment on a passage like this would be to do it an injustice, for the unimpaired clarity of its meaning transcends the eloquence of men. Yet be it known to all men that just as eternal inheritance demands eternal life, so does eternal life necessitate the effective work of the ETERNAL SPIRIT, for Jesus Christ was raised from the dead by the Spirit of the Father, and if the Spirit of Him that raised Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwells in you (Rom. 8:11).
It is important to understand that the divine plan of God in redemption begins with Abraham. Before Abraham, God dealt with several important individuals. But God did not deal with them in the light of His ultimate and eternal purpose, only in relation to the time in which they themselves lived. Abel was a righteous man and offered sacrifices in accord with the will of God, but he offered for himself alone. He was not specially chosen in relation to the ultimate and eternal purpose of God. Enoch, too, walked with God, but only in an individual walk. In Noah's day all mankind was living in the depths of corruption, but Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord and survived the deluge, but yet we do not find that he was chosen or called in relation to the ultimate and eternal purpose of God, but only in relation to the situation and need of his own day.
But it is when we come to Abraham that we encounter the first example of a man specially chosen of God with the future in mind - the eternal purpose of God in consideration. This is why we say that the divine plan of redemption begins to be worked out with Abraham. When Jesus came to confirm and ratify with His own blood the promises to the Fathers of eternal inheritance, it is not said that He took upon Him the seed of Adam - but "He took on Him the seed of ABRAHAM" (Heb. 2:16). He came not as Adam's "seed," but as Abraham's "seed." All the promises of God which embody the redemptive and eternal plan and purpose of God were made to two specially called and chosen people - Abraham and his "seed" (Gal. 3:16). Jesus did not come to confirm the promises made to Noah, or to Enoch, or to Abel. He came to confirm the promises made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. So everything begins with Abraham; he is the starting point of everything in the redemptive and eternal purposes of God.
There is neither time nor space to examine the many facets and ramifications of God's promises to Abraham, but you can read of them in the book of Genesis and ask God for wisdom and understanding. He was to become "a great nation." He was to become "a multitude of nations." God said, "Kings shall come of you." Abraham's posterity were to emigrate and colonize and "spread abroad to the west, the east, the north, and the south." Abraham was not only to have a multiplicity of seed or offspring, but one particular "seed" through whom ALL THE FAMILIES OF THE EARTH WOULD BE BLESSED. This singular seed "is Christ" and yet it is a corporate seed composed of many members - the sons of God (Gal. 3:16; 1 Cor. 12:12). When Abraham received these staggering promises, what did he do? He believed them. "...to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all; (as it is written, I have made you a father of many nations,) before Him whom he believed, even God, who quickens the dead, and calls those things which be not as though they were. Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations; according to that which was spoken, So shall your seed be. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb: he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; and being fully persuaded that, what He had promised, He was able also to perform" (Rom. 4:16-21).
Abraham was persuaded of the promises and EMBRACED THEM (Heb. 11:13). Now, any thing that a person embraces is in his bosom. This is what is meant by Abraham's bosom - the fulfillment of the Abrabamic covenant and the gracious promises which God made to him and his descendants! To be in Abraham's bosom is to be like him in heart and faith and to embrace, with him, the promises which he saw afar off - the promises of his covenant-keeping God who had sworn that He would give him a "land"; that the land would be given to him and to his "seed"; that this inheritance would be to him and to his seed FOREVER; that he would become a great nation and a company of nations; that in him and his seed all the families of the earth would be blessed; that his seed would become not only as the dust of the earth, but as the stars of heaven - a glory and dominion extending to the whole earth and far beyond to the eternal vastnesses of the unbounded universe, both earthly and heavenly, terrestrial and celestial, natural and spiritual! To be in Abraham's bosom is to be "embraced" by the Abrahamic covenant, being brought into close, personal relationship with Abraham as a recipient of the promises! It means to be an Israelite, indeed!